This is something I've been wanting to do for a while now. Kunlun Journal is only going to be published every four months, which means most of the year there won't be new material being published. I plan to update the blog regularly as I have been doing, and the new forum will hopefully provide an outlet for discussion and community development, but I want something more.

Wuxia, specifically, has a history of being released serially, as installments in newspapers. Jin Yong, by far the most well known and successful wuxia novelist, got his start publishing serially. His first novel, Book and Sword, Gratitude and Revenge, was first published serially in The New Evening Post, a Hong Kong newspaper. Two years later, Jin Yong founded his own newspaper, Ming Pao, and he used the serialization of his own novels to keep his newspaper going.

I would like to follow in that tradition and publish novels serially on this site. Doing so will give readers something to look forward to, a reason to come to this site besides blog updates. If a novel becomes popular, the forums can be used to discuss the story, thereby helping the forum and, subsequently, the community, grow. And of course, serializing a novel on the site means that more wuxia or historical fiction is being written, and that's always a good thing.

So Kunlun Journal is calling for novels to be serialized on the site. If you have a novel that is written, then you can submit. But even if your novel is not complete, or even not started, you can still submit your idea. Writing on the fly is the way is used to be done, and not just wuxia. Charles Dickens and others in his day published their stories serially and wrote as they went along as well. There's no reason we can't still do that today.

Novels accepted for serialization will be published on this site, with its own page and a link on the navigation bar at the top of this site. Each installment will be published as a regular blog post, as well as on the novel's individual page. The individual page will serve as an archive for readers who may have missed an installment, preventing the need to hunt through blog posts or search keyword tags to find the part you missed. Installments will be updated either daily, several times a week, or weekly, depending on the author.

Just to make this clear: there is no pay for serializing your novel here, so I can understand someone not wanting to do it. A good novel on the site would be great for increasing readership and awareness, and thereby building the community, which is the main goal of Kunlun Journal. So basically, publishing your novel here will be doing the journal a favor, and publishing here will only help develop the community. If you have a serial going elsewhere that is relevant to this community, then please let me know and I will be happy to direct readers there so they can read it.

If you would like to submit your novel, or idea for a novel, please email me at kunlunjournal@gmail.com. Include in your email a short synopsis of a novel, and any outline you may have. If you don't have an outline, then tell me what your story is about and where it will go, what you have planned for it. Submissions for novel serialization are open indefinitely. Only original works will be considered, so no fan fiction please.

UPDATE: Kunlun Journal is now accepting submissions for Issue 2. Submission guidelines are here. The first issue will be released this April. The exact date is TBD.

Also, thought you guys might be interested in this post I put up. It's a guzheng performance by my father-in-law's friend's daughter at my wedding banquet in Taiwan in March 2009. The video is embedded below so you don't have to navigate away from here.

Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove is the official newsletter of Kunlun Journal. But it is more than just a newsletter. In addition to keeping subscribers updated with important information relating to Kunlun Journal, such as issue release dates, submission deadlines, and other news, Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove will also offer exclusive content not available on the blog or anywhere else.

Think of Seven Sages as an e-zine, a supplement to Kunlun Journal. The journal is only published every four months, but Seven Sages will be published more frequently, and at no set interval. The content will vary. For example: essays and other articles on wuxia, Chinese literature, Chinese culture, news about movie and book releases, reviews, commentary, videos, special offers, and any other fun stuff I want to include. One special feature of Seven Sages will be novel serializations. Only subscribers will have access to novel serial installments.

How is the Newsletter different from the Blog?

The blog is basically for news and updates related to the journal. Some of the posts so far have diverged from that, such as the guzheng performance post, or the Better Know a Writing App series. These kinds of things will now show up in the Seven Sages newsletter. The blog will continue to be updated regularly, but the updates will be more directly related to the journal and its subject matter.

Seven Sages, on the other hand, will offer more varied content, some of which is directly related to the journal, such as essays about the wuxia genre, or a review of an historical fiction book, but other topics will be covered as well. I live in Taiwan, so from time to time I might write about something related to the culture here in Taiwan, or Chinese culture in general. I might write an article about some subject of Chinese history, or I might give a quick Chinese language lesson.

Seven Sages is meant as a place to post content I believe readers will be interested in, and using an email newsletter as the medium is a way to establish a closer relationship with my readership. My main goal is to establish wuxia as a genre in English, and to popularize Chinese literature and culture in general, and I hope to use Seven Sages to help with that.

Why should I subscribe to the Newsletter?

You should subscribe to the Seven Sages newsletter if you want to stay updated with the goings-on of Kunlun Journal and also read interesting stories and articles related to Chinese literature and culture in between releases of the journal. The idea is for Seven Sages to be fun to read, and I will strive to make it fun to read. If you don't like the newsletter, or otherwise no longer wish to receive it, unsubscribing is quick and easy. As always, any feedback or suggestions on how to make it better are always welcome.

Another reason to subscribe to the newsletter is because I am working on getting a novel serialization going on the site, and it will only be available to subscribers. There will be more information on that as the time approaches.

Finally, you needn't worry about spam. I hate spam as well, and I won't spam you. I will not sell or give away any email addresses to anyone either. Your email address is the only information I need from you. You can subscribe to the newsletter here. You can also sign up via the red box on the sidebar to the right. Just put in your email address, hit subscribe, and then it will send you a confirmation email. Open that email and click on the link to confirm your subscription.